The Consumer Electronics Show brought a hotbed of innovation to 12 different venues scattered across the Las Vegas strip. The city is already busting at the seams with hotels, restaurants, and other engaging experiences vying for tourists’ attention, but during CES 2025, which ran January 7-10, these 10 activations and events won the attention of more than 141,000 onsite attendees and media outlets for their innovation, photo worthiness, and plain ‘ole cool touches of experiential. 

Keep scrolling to see what we’re talking about, plus get an inside look at how the events teams behind each activation pulled it off... 

Reddit’s “A Different Conversation” Activation

Reddit’s 2025 CES HQ at Las Vegas’ Cosmopolitan hotel was all about sparking unconventional conversations designed to drive purchase decisions. Fittingly dubbed “A Different Conversation,” the orange-clad activation marked Reddit’s third appearance at CES. The space was anchored by an interactive moment with none other than the site’s beloved mascot, Snoo, that showcased Reddit’s big bet on artificial intelligence. 

Public hours for all attendees to peruse the eye-catching space accompanied live programming hosted by Reddit at the ARIA hotel, including a private breakfast titled “AI in Action,” the invite-only “Reddit Innovation Roundtable” with Reddit’s key leaders, and a session titled “Breakthrough Tech Trends—What Will Stick?” 

Reddit debuted a new AMA (Ask-Me-Anything) format at CES. The anonymity element of the recently released feature encourages users to have conversations they otherwise wouldn’t, thus effectively engaging communities in new ways, according to Reddit. To showcase just that, Reddit’s presence at CES featured oversized speech bubbles with real queries from the platform, including one where a user wrote: I’ve never shared my credit score before, but we’ve been shopping around for rates on a $300k primary residence loan. 760+ credit score. What kind of rates is everyone getting right now?” 

Photos: Courtesy of Reddit

MediaLink’s Educational Programming 

UTA company MediaLink, a New York-based consulting firm to the media and marketing industry, returned to the C Space (which CES sets up for advertising and advertising, entertainment, and content leaders) at ARIA with live programming. As part of MediaLink’s longstanding partnership with the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), it led the CES Marketing Reinvented track with major brands like Sam’s Club, Mars, Hilton, and Cirque du Soleil. 

“Links by MediaLink” (see photo above) also took place at ARIA, a hosted conversation series where topics transcended retail media, AI for marketers, and the evolution of sports marketing and entertainment. 

Fitting to the Vegas destination, MediaLink’s meeting room took on a desert theme. The serene breakout space featured neutral tones, leather seating, and live greenery. 

MediaLink’s Annual VIP Executive Dinner 

On Jan. 7, MediaLink once again hosted its annual VIP Executive Dinner at the Fontainebleau’s LIV Nightclub—a switch up from last year’s venue at the Wynn. It's safe to say the caliber of the evening’s performances and attendees didn’t change, though, with Meghan Trainor taking the stage for a crowd of VIPs like Yahoo chief Jim Lanzone, iHeartMedia president Rich Bressler, Gary Vaynerchuk of VaynerMedia, and many more. 

Photos: Nomad Media Collective

ImpactXM’s Healthcare CES Experience Crawl

In its 10th year at CES, experiential marketing agency ImpactXM showed up in its strongest presence yet, hosting a Healthcare Experience Crawl where 36 invited healthcare convention planners were inspired to think big with an exclusive walk through the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC). “Oftentimes, healthcare conventions are heavily regulated and they're restricted by what they can and cannot do in their exhibits. So, this event was all about inspiring our healthcare clients on what's possible, providing them with thought leadership, and translating the overwhelming trends and innovation that is heavily apparent at CES,” Brittany Leeb, ImpactXM’s vice president of new business development, told CEN.

Curated events included an offsite tour of immersive storytelling production facility Vu Studios, guided walks through LVCC and The Venetian, and a nighttime cocktail hour and dining experience at Electric Playhouse, “where we played competitive projection-mapped games,” Leeb explained.

ImpactXM also assigned a strategist to help its guests filter through CES’s 300-plus sessions to identify which would be most useful and interesting for professionals focused on healthcare. “Ultimately, our brains can only compute so much of CES, so by curating an experience for them [healthcare professionals], it made the overall event more memorable for them and more useful for them in their day-to-day,” Leeb explained of the inspiration behind the Experience Crawl. 

Photos: Courtesy of ImpactXM 

Proto at the Schaeffler Motion Hub 

Motion technology firm Schaeffler showed up at LVCC with the Motion Hub, which its regional CEO of the Americas Marc McGrath said in a press release “is a significant milestone for Schaeffler as we show our expanded portfolio of products and how we are in a unique position to not only enable but accelerate the pace of change in our evolving industries.” It did so with the help of Proto, which used its holograms to show off machine parts and “how they move and integrate according to requests from visitors,” explained Proto’s advisor, Owen Phillips. 

Proto at AARP’s AgeTech Activation

AARP returned to CES to spotlight AgeTech, an innovative sect of technologies designed to meet the needs of the world’s aging population. Once again, Proto assisted in showing off the latest tech on the scene with “Proto units large and small,” Phillips said. In one instance, members of the AgeTech Collective—AARP's group of leading AgeTech minds—were beamed onto the exhibitor floor to share more about AARP’s apps and initiatives, Phillips explained. 

On smaller Proto devices the size of tablets, “holograms told [CES attendees] about aging issues AARP addresses," Phillips added. 

Photos: Courtesy of Proto 

Pinterest’s Blue Ribbon Takeover

Pinterest took over the famed Blue Ribbon seafood restaurant at The Cosmopolitan for a highly interactive activation designed to show off the platform’s “innovation roadmap and how we’re staying at the forefront of visual search and discovery in 2025 and beyond,” according to Pinterest’s landing page on its CES presence. Guests were greeted into the space by the Collage Studio (see lead image), where they could try out Pinterest’s latest collaging feature by cutting, combining, and layering their favorite images into interactive Pins. Custom collages could also be printed on tote bags in a create swag moment.

Pinterest’s “Funnel Vision” slot machine screamed “viva Las Vegas” by inviting attendees to spin for a chance to win a jackpot prize: a visit to the iconic Sphere. 

Pinterest’s meeting space within its activation was as eye-catching as every other touchpoint with playful nods to some impressive stats, such as the sign indicating that searches for “dark siren makeup” were up a staggering 695% on Pinterest. 

Display tables with sweet treats showcased some of the top searches on Pinterest, like this “Rococo Revival” setup of pastel, ornately decorated cakes signifying the rise in search terms like “Rococo wedding,” “Rococo outfit,” and “Rococo party” on Pinterest. Other corners of the activation nodded to users’ recent pickle fix and love for all-things cherries. 

Photos: Courtesy of Pinterest

Roku at ARIA

Creative brand experience agency Cheerful Twentyfirst’s head of marketing, Georgia Cross, told CEN that it saw a “record number of activations at ARIA” this year—its third year at CES—thus, “making it more critical than ever to stand out.” In order to do so, “our approach was to focus on hyper-personalization and premium build quality, incorporating unique custom elements that elevated the experience for both clients and attendees,” Cross said.  

Cheerful Twentyfirst did just that with Roku’s activation spanning two penthouses plus a three-bedroom suite at ARIA, which was all about the intersection of wellness and tech. Here, guests “not only explored Roku products, but stopped and relaxed in the middle of the Las Vegas chaos,” Cross explained.

Lush greenery, bespoke diffusers, and essential oils set a rejuvenating scene for Roku to reveal its new Data Cloud, which “allows partners to access, analyze, and leverage Roku’s proprietary TV data seamlessly,” according to a press release on the data solution. 

Aside from giving the Data Cloud offering more direct access to streaming data, Roku also used CES to show off its new partnership with software platform Innovid to enhance advertising outcomes across CTV. 

Roku’s iconic purple branding was woven throughout the activation. 

Photos: Courtesy of Cheerful Twentyfirst

Smartly’s Penthouse Takeover

AI-powered advertising tech company Smartly took over a penthouse suite at ARIA with the help of Cheerful Twentyfirst that embodied the spirit of “no limits in 2025,” Cross said (fitting, considering ARIA’s luxe penthouse is 59 stories up).  

The design of Smartly’s space—intended to spark meaningful conversations and forge new professional relationships—was a “sophisticated oasis,” according to Cross. A living room-style setup complete with greenery accomplished just that. 

Photo: Courtesy of Cheerful Twentyfirst 

CES’s Opening Keynote with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang 

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang kicked off CES 2025 with a well-attended, 90-minute keynote at the Mandalay Bay Michelob ULTRA Arena focused on AI innovations in gaming, robotics, and autonomous vehicles. “The ChatGPT moment for general robotics is just around the corner,” Huang told the 12,000-seat arena during his presentation while introducing NVIDIA’s Cosmos platform for developing AI systems to be used in the physical world, like in self-driving vehicles. 

Among Huang’s other most buzzed-about announcements: the release of the $1,999 GeForce RTX 5090 graphics card for desktop PCs, which boasts an insane amount of computing power to offer higher resolutions and super-fast memory for an upgraded gaming experience. Also, Nvidia has a new AI superchip that’s smaller and even more powerful than its predecessor, the Blackwell chip. “This is Nvidia’s latest AI supercomputer,” Huang said while showing off the device on stage, adding that “it runs the entire NVIDIA AI stack.” 

Photos: Courtesy of the Consumer Technology Association (CTA)

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